Tony Ferguson has no plans to retire following his UFC 279 submission loss to Nate Diaz.
Ferguson was set to return to welterweight to face Li Jingliang but after Khamzat Chimaev missed weight and the card was re-shuffled, ‘El Cucuy’ wound up headlining the event against Diaz.
Ferguson had entered the contest with hopes of snapping a four-fight losing skid, but was ultimately defeated by Nate Diaz via submission.
After the loss, several analysts including Daniel Cormier thought Ferguson should retire given he has now lost five in a row. However, ‘El Cucuy’ says he won’t retire and also blasted Cormier for saying he should retire.
“When I feel like I’m ready to retire, I will retire. But right now it’s a little bit different, a little bit more interesting,” Ferguson said to ESPN. “DC and all these commentators that just keep repeating the same s**t in the past couple of years, because that’s what they want me to do. They want the public eye to see me like that and they want to see me as a quitter and so on and so forth. I never cheated to get on the scales to retain my championship like DC, hashtag ‘towel gate,’ these guys grabbing the towel, trying to lift some pounds off the scale. The UFC (was) right there, they went with it. It’s like an inside job.
“This guy wants to call it out, I’m going to call you right back out. You don’t have to be an asshole to the people who actually work hard,” Ferguson continued. “There’s a lot of up-and-coming fighters that see that sh*t and they’re going to try and go with the clique and that’s it. So don’t start that sh*t. I’ve literally given my shirt off my back to the fans, and same thing with the UFC, and I’ll still take my shirt off to go inside that f*****g Octagon and show that I’m the f*cking man. I’m still the f*cking champ.”
Tony Ferguson, as mentioned, has now lost five fights in a row but he remains adamant he will fight again and is confident he can still win fights.
Do you think Tony Ferguson should retire?